12 Carnavales

Through characters, digital and textile archives, Gala Berger’s work centers on the representation of imagined figurative subjects, revealing the power of images to construct a recognizable and shared identity. Her most recent work, including this series, draws inspiration from the carnivals and customs of South American capitals, with representations based on the iconographies of popular art. These celebrations offered an opportunity to transgress and imagine new social roles, and—with their costumes and songs—allowed for the construction of a nosotrxs efímero *, another recurring theme in her work: how alliances and solidarities can be built across different life experiences. In 12 Carnavales, Gala focuses on archives and images that highlight the social and community dynamics at play during these celebrations. Many of these activities were later prohibited by local governments for being considered dangerous to public order and urban customs. Yet the artist returns to them to emphasize how these experiences continue to shape many of today’s issues surrounding public space and collective life. While these customs vary markedly from one country to another, this series of textile and paper works seeks above all to represent the ideas shared throughout the region. It draws on the spirit of costumes, textiles, masks, and role inversion employed in carnival performances to fuel dissident visions of the nation-state and to reinstate the presence of diverse ways of existing within its borders. Another source that informs the series comes from the artist’s grandmother and her memories of the Buenos Aires Carnival in the 1930s, as well as their later repetitions through the circular movements of memory in her old age. For this reason, these textile collages also explore the layering of materials, digital sublimation prints, and synthetic lycras faded in dark tones, along with the multiple layers of meaning woven into social processes and the memories associated with them.